one man's trash

If you were to walk around my house, you may not notice it at first, but you'd see that a majority of our furniture are hand me down's. Some are hand me down's that serve a purpose, but some are hand-me-down's that I absolutely LOVE having around. They have sentimental value and remind me of someone special or an event I hold dear to my heart.

For instance, this end table, that I use as a night stand in our room. 

Actually there are TWO of them, the other one sits next to the rocker in Lily's room.

It belonged to my parents, way back when they were still married. It obviously serves a purpose, and was/has been helpful since we need to spend our money in other are'a of our lives, and not new furniture. It'm certainly not holding on to it because it is a beautiful piece (sorry mom and dad). And I don't even remember it when it was in our house when I was a kid. But having it in my home now is a constant reminder of "back when....". It's like holding on to a little piece of my childhood.

And this coffee table, that's not really a coffee table.

It belonged to my great-grandmother, my mom's grandma. And I don't truly remember much about HER, but I remember her house distinctly, and I remember visiting her in the nursing home. And I don't remember this hope chest turned coffee table in her home, but I love the feel of it and the functionality of it. It is the perfect size for the kids to set their toys and snacks on, and to play on, and for jonah to jump off of. Sure, any old table could have done that, but this table has character (and holds all my diaper bags and baby carriers, too).

And this table means a lot to Todd.

I actually tried getting rid of it once and he told me I couldn't because it was REAL marble on the top. I don't think he saved it because of that, but moreso because he didn't want to admit it held a piece of his heart since it belonged to his grandmother.

I hope someday we have furniture that the kids will "want" passed down to them, I just can't imagine we have anything that they'd care all that much about. But then again, did our parents or grandparents think we would have any interest in their old "junk"?

Do you have sentimental pieces in your homes like these? I'd love to hear your stories, too.

full disclosure: CSN Stores is providing me with a gift certificate to their stores in exchange for a link to one of their stores in this blog post. I believe it the utmost honesty given to my readers and I tried to keep it as relevant as possible.